Etsy or Vinted asking for your tax ID? Why it happens (DAC7) and where to find your Steuer-ID

What DAC7 is, in plain terms

DAC7 is Council Directive (EU) 2021/514, which amended the EU's directive on administrative cooperation in tax. The European Commission says it entered into force on 1 January 2023, and the first exchange of information, covering calendar year 2023, took place at the end of February 2024. It covers four kinds of activity on platforms: the sale of goods, the rental of property, personal services and the rental of any mode of transport.

The duty sits with the platform, not with you. The Commission's reasoning is that platforms are better placed to collect and verify seller details. Each year, by 31 January, the platform reports what you earned in the previous year. Germany's implementing law, the Plattformen-Steuertransparenzgesetz (PStTG), lists what has to be reported for a private individual:

• First and last name, and the address where you live.
• Every tax identification number issued to you, with the country that issued it. If you have none, your place of birth instead.
• Your VAT identification number, if you have one.
• Your date of birth.
• The bank account your payouts go to, if there is one.
• The total paid to you in each quarter, the number of sales, and the fees and commissions the platform took.

Who actually has to answer: the 30 sales and €2,000 rule

For selling goods, there is an exclusion for small sellers. Germany's PStTG, which applies the directive, exempts a seller who made fewer than 30 sales on the same platform in the reporting period and received less than €2,000 in total for them. Both conditions must hold. Reach 30 sales in a calendar year, even cheap ones, or reach €2,000, and you become reportable on that platform.

The count is per platform and per calendar year. Twenty sales on Vinted and twenty on eBay are two separate counts, and the count starts again each January. Each platform also describes its own trigger:

• Etsy: 30 or more transactions with physical goods in a calendar year, or €2,000 or more in physical goods sales, or any sales of made-to-order digital items.
• Vinted: at least 30 sales or more than €2,000 in a calendar year. The form is due by early January of the next year or within 60 days of reaching the threshold, whichever is later.
• eBay: 30 or more transactions, or payouts of €2,000 or more after fees, commissions or taxes, in a calendar year.
• Airbnb: its help page describes no threshold. DAC7 covers any host or co-host who earns from renting accommodation, including hosts who live outside the EU but have a listing inside it, and Airbnb asks for a tax ID for your country of residence and for each other EU country where you have a listing.

Germany: where to find your Steuer-ID

Platforms want your steuerliche Identifikationsnummer, also written Steuer-ID or IdNr. The Bundeszentralamt für Steuern (BZSt) describes it as an eleven-digit number that stays the same for life, including after a move, a marriage or a name change. Vinted's guide accepts the same number under the names 'Steueridentifikationsnummer', 'Identifikationsnummer (IdNr)' and 'Persönliche Identifikationsnummer'. If the number in front of you is not 11 digits, it is probably a different number, such as a VAT ID, and not the one the platform needs.

• Look at your last Einkommensteuerbescheid (income tax assessment) or your Lohnsteuerbescheinigung (wage tax certificate). The BZSt says it is usually printed on one of these.
• Vinted also lists the informational letter the BZSt sent you when the number was assigned.
• Still can't find it? Request it again with the input form on bzst.de, or by letter to the BZSt. You give your name, address, date of birth and place of birth.
• The BZSt only sends the number by post to your registered address. It will not give it out by email or phone, so start early rather than in the week the platform's deadline runs out.

France: where to find your numéro fiscal

French sellers are asked for the numéro fiscal, also called the numéro fiscal de référence or numéro d'identification fiscale (NIF). Vinted's guide describes it as 13 digits. It is not the numéro d'accès en ligne printed next to it on your return; that one is a separate login code.

• On your pre-filled income tax return, impots.gouv.fr says it is at the top left of the first page, next to the numéro d'accès en ligne.
• On your income tax notice, or a property or local tax notice, it is at the top left under 'Vos références'.
• Lost it but have an online account: go to impots.gouv.fr, open the login page for your espace Finances publiques and click 'Numéro fiscal oublié ?'. Enter the email address linked to your account, your date of birth and the captcha (plus an SMS code if your mobile number is verified). The number is sent to you by email.
• As a last resort, call 0 809 401 401, Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 19:00, or contact your Centre des Finances publiques.

Where to enter it, and what happens if you don't

Germany's PStTG sets out the process every platform reporting there must follow. If a seller doesn't hand over the information, the platform must send two reminders. If there is still no answer, it must act no sooner than 60 days and no later than 180 days after the first request: either block the account and stop the seller registering again, or withhold their payments. It has to lift those measures as soon as the information arrives. Here is how each platform handles it:

• Etsy: in Shop Manager, select 'Get started' in the banner on your dashboard. Sellers outside the US and India choose their country and tax ID in the 'Additional taxpayer identification' field on the 'Legal and tax information' page. Etsy's reporting page says that if you don't respond in time it will pause your shop in Holiday Mode and you won't receive new orders.
• Vinted: the DAC7 form is pre-filled from your account and only needs your tax identification number. If you don't submit it, Vinted says you won't be able to withdraw your balance or use it to buy, and you will be stopped from selling after one more sale. Submitting the form restores access.
• eBay: eBay emails you to ask for your TIN and asks you to enter it where prompted. Its seller page says that without it, eBay can't process your payouts and you won't be able to sell.
• Airbnb: select your profile picture, then 'Account', then 'Taxes', then 'Add tax info', choose the country and enter the number. Airbnb says it will freeze your payouts after giving notice if you don't, and unfreeze them once you do. If you made a mistake, you can delete the entry and add it again without losing your listings.

Being reported does not mean you owe tax

This is the part that worries people most, so it is worth being precise. The European Commission states that DAC7 does not impose any new tax or in any way regulate the taxation of income earned by sellers on platforms. It is a reporting rule. Your tax office receives information it could, in principle, have asked you for anyway.

Whether any of that money is taxable is decided by your own country's existing rules, exactly as before 2023. Vinted, for example, tells its users that selling personal items on Vinted is not taxed and that DAC7 does not change any tax laws. Selling things you made or bought to resell, or renting out a flat, can be a different matter, and the answer depends on your country and your circumstances.

Etsy gives you a PDF summary of what it reported, so you can see the same figures your tax office sees. Keep it with your records.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice, and your situation may differ. If you are unsure whether you owe anything, ask your tax office or an accountant.

Prevent it next time

Most of the stress comes from being asked at a bad moment, with a payout stuck and no idea where the number is. A few minutes now saves that.

• Save your Steuer-ID or numéro fiscal somewhere safe that you can reach from your phone. It doesn't change, so you only need to find it once.
• Make sure the name, address and date of birth on your platform account match your tax records exactly. Etsy, for example, warns that you may not be able to save a VAT ID if the name doesn't match your national tax registration.
• Answer the first request, not the last reminder. The legal window before a block can be as short as 60 days.
• If you sell on several platforms, remember each one counts separately and each may ask you on its own schedule.
• Only enter your tax ID inside the platform's own site or app. If an email asks for it, open the platform yourself rather than clicking a link in the message.

Selling from your own page instead

If you also sell to your own followers, OneSol gives you a free link-in-bio page for your links, products, forms and events, and on Pro ($9/month) you can take payments through your own Stripe or PayPal account, with the money going straight to you. It does not file taxes, collect VAT or give tax advice, so your national tax rules still apply to what you sell there.